


brighter than the sun

by hanbunnotsuki



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 17:51:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11903019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanbunnotsuki/pseuds/hanbunnotsuki
Summary: Where Hunk works at a cafe, makes a friend through his food, and perhaps ends up with something more.





	brighter than the sun

It's common knowledge to everyone that knows him that Hunk _loves_ food.  
  
He likes eating them, he likes making them, he likes watching other people enjoy them.  
  
And that is why his current part-time job at the Balmera Cafe as the cook-slash-barista is perfect for him.  
  
His workplace is a quaint little shop at the corner of the street that serves coffee and all-day breakfast. It’s a family-run business, managed by the Balmera siblings, Shay and Rax who were looking for hired help the year before. Hunk who had just started college at that time needed the disposable income and applied, bringing a sample of his baked goods to the interview. Rax wouldn’t admit it to this day and keeps saying Hunk got the job because no one else wanted it, but Hunk knows he _aced_ that interview. He knows he makes the meanest brownie.

And though it’s not as much frequented as a certain coffeeshop franchise empire, they serve good coffee and good food, so they have quite a number of loyal customers. Most days are slow, but sometimes, they’ll get to have new customers coming in who will most probably become another regular.  
  
Like this morning, Hunk thinks, as an unfamiliar face pushes the door to the cafe open and trudges to the counter. The guy is wearing a heavy frown, which does nothing to his pretty face, carrying a laptop and a backpack Hunk guesses is full of textbooks. A student, probably around Hunk’s age. He looks around the cafe, probably trying to see if there’s a seat for him.  
  
“Welcome to Balmera! Can I get anything for you?” Shay greets him.  
  
“Uh, yeah.” The guy squints his eyes at the menu, skimming through it. “I’ll just get a latte. A large one. To have here.”  
  
“That will be $4.00. May I have your name please?” It’s not actually necessary for them to ask names, looking how the cafe only has a handful of customers at a time, but Shay thinks it’s a good way to build a bond with the customers, and had insisted them to do it every time.  
  
“It’s Keith,” The guy—Keith says, while digging through his pocket for a bill and hands it to Shay. He then saunters off to take the table at the innermost corner, a good choice as it’s the closest one to the power outlet, takes his books out of his bag and piles them up next to his laptop.  
  
Hunk quickly goes to work, his body going through the motion of making a cup of coffee that he’s repeated hundreds of times before. He delivers the coffee there himself, careful not to jostle the cup as he makes his way across the room.  
  
“One large latte for Keith?”  
  
The guy barely spares Hunk a glance, nodding briefly in acknowledgment as Hunk puts the cup down carefully next to his books. “Thanks,” Keith says curtly before gluing his eyes back to his laptop.  
  
Hunk walks back to the counter, his eyes lingering at their newest customer. Definitely not the friendly type, perhaps the ice queen type? No, wait, ice king?  
  
“Hunk, one medium soy mocha and iced latte to go!”  
  
“Aye, aye, Shay! Coming right up,” Hunk calls back and focuses on the task at hand, whipping out drinks and handing them out to the customers.  
  
With the newly arrived customers also comes the lunch rush and Hunk is quickly swamped in lunch set orders, his body moving without a pause, getting plate after plate out. When it finally dies down, Hunk leans on the counter, heaving out a sigh of relief as the last of the lunch regulars leave the premise. Another day of a job well done.  
  
No matter how modest a cafe is, lunch rush is always a daily struggle. Hunk works out a kink in his neck when he realizes One-Large-Latte-Keith is still here, still pouring over his textbooks. Hunk doesn’t think the guy ever ordered lunch or even topping up his coffee. And though it’s understandable how students sometimes sacrifice time to eat for cramming, the fact is it’s not even close to mid-term exams yet.  
  
“You can go on your break now, Hunk,” Shay tells him while wiping the counter clean. “Rax says he’ll be on his way soon, so you can end your shift earlier if you want.”  
  
“You’re an angel, Shay!” Hunk says, his attempt at flattery only earning him an amused chuckle.  
  
He heads to the staff room and makes a beeline to his locker, rummaging through his backpack to get his...a-ha! Hunk takes his prize out. The prize is a Tupperware full of baked goods, the result of him experimenting with recipes all throughout the weekend. He’s been thinking of giving some to Shays as a sample and perhaps, maybe, possibly put it up at the showcase to be sold.  
  
But right now he’s got a better plan for his newest batch of babies.  
  
“Hi! Do you mind if I sit here?”  
  
One-Large-Latte-Keith looks up with knitted eyebrows, looking as if he’s ready to spit out a venomous ‘no’ any second now. “Suit yourself.”  
  
_Oh. Phew._ Hunk quickly takes the seat opposite him, placing his Tupperware on the small space left at the table. Now what? It’s probably too creepy if he starts offering food, right? Maybe this isn’t the best of ideas, maybe he’s being too intrusive rather than friendly. But it’ll be weird if he just up and leave.  
  
“Aren’t you supposed to be working?” Keith asks, typing away on his laptop. An opening for a conversation! Good, good, that’s a good sign.  
  
“It’s my lunch break, actually. The name’s Hunk, by the way,” Hunk raises his hand in a small wave but quickly pulls it back when he realized how awkward it was. “So, uh, I noticed you haven’t ordered any food even though you’ve been here for hours.”  
  
“I’m Keith,” Keith squints at Hunk, looking as if he’s trying to gauge Hunk’s intention. “Is there a store policy for that? I can’t stay here for long if I don’t order food?”  
  
“What? Oh, no no no! You’re good! But aren’t you starving? It’s past lunch time and you’ve been studying ever since you got here.”  
  
“I’ve got coffee,” Keith nods at his latte, raising his eyebrows at Hunk in a challenging way.  
  
“Uh, yeah. Hate to break it to you man, but coffee cannot be counted as lunch. And you’ve had the same cup for hours!” Hunk opens the Tupperware and nudges it at Keith’s direction. “So I’m wondering if I can offer you to share my lunch?”  
  
There’s an awkward silence as Keith eyes both Hunk and the Tupperware in suspicion.  
  
“What is this like part of your job? Or do you just offer your food to all of your other customers?”  
  
“Well, you make it sound like me trying to be friendly is sketchy and now that I think about it, it actually is, but to your answer your question: no. I just have extra food today and seeing someone not consuming anything for lunch just bugs me a lot, sooo I thought I’d be neighbourly and share some of my food with you, though I guess we’re not neighbours, and I’m aware I’m rambling now, but I swear it’s not poisoned or anything, so.” Hunk bites his lip and scratches the back of his neck.  
  
“O...kay?” The caution in Keith’s voice is gone and is replaced with part confusion part amusement.  
  
Hunk’s pretty sure he’s embarrassing himself right now, but then Keith reaches his hand out and grabs a piece of ham and cheese croissant, the ends of his mouth curling up into a smile. “I’ll take you up on your offer then. Thanks,” he says and takes a big bite into the croissant. And three, two, one, and there it is. Keith’s eyes widen and the dull sheen on them disappears.  
  
It’s Hunk’s favorite part of cooking for other people, this moment when their eyes spark in wonder as they take in the taste. It makes Hunk feel confident in his cooking.  
  
“This...this is amazingly delicious,” Keith breathes.  
  
“Aw, thanks, man! Glad you think so.”  
  
“Wait, you _made_ this?” Keith’s eyes go even wider before he takes another big bite.  
  
“Yup!” Hunk grabs a croissant for himself, feeling proud and chuffed at the reaction he got. “So what are you studying?”  
  
“Physics,” Keith answers simply between bites.  
  
“Oh cool. I’m an engineering man myself. But exams are light years away, dude, are you sure you’re not overkilling it with all...this?” Hunk gestures at the books and the laptop with his free hand to make his point.  
  
“I’m researching for a paper. I like to start early,” Keith shrugs and finishes his croissant, licking his lips to get rid of the crumbs. The action is distracting enough to make Hunk pause for a moment.  
  
“Staying committed to being a student, I respect that.”  
  
Hunk offers him another piece of pastry, a danish this time, and Keith accepts it with poorly-concealed enthusiasm. The make a little more small talk until Hunk needs to go do the rest of his shift.  
  
“I better get back behind the counter. It’s nice meeting you today, Keith. Hope we’ll be seeing you again around here!”  
  
“Nice meeting you too, Hunk. Thanks again for the food, it was really good,” Keith smiles.  
  
One-Large-Latte-Keith turns out not to be so icy after all, he seems pretty nice actually. He likes Hunk’s food, which always scores high in Hunk’s book. And though he looked uptight at first, when the guy loses the scowl there’s no denying that Keith is one hell of a beautiful specimen among men.  
  
When Rax arrives and Hunk takes off his apron, he hollers a goodbye to Keith and considers it a win when Keith waves him goodbye.  
  
Hunk is sure he’s just scored them a new regular, but he hopes he’s also scored himself a new friend.

* * *

  
  
True to Hunk’s prediction, Keith keeps coming back to the Balmera, always perched at the table in the inner corner surrounded by his books. Give it a little while, and he will dub the table as exclusively his. Their regulars tend to do that.  
  
And Hunk has gotten into a routine of feeding Keith his homemade food every once so often, and spending his break time talking to Keith. What he considers as a success, though, is when Keith orders lunch out of his own volition, without Hunk needing to wheedle him to eat.  
  
During this time, this is what Hunk has learned about Keith:  
  
1\. He goes to the same university as Hunk. (Not surprising, considering it’s the closest one in the area.)  
  
2\. He’s a year older than Hunk.  
  
3\. He’s on a full scholarship program. (Hence the fervent non-stop studying.)  
  
4\. He looks like a badass but he’s actually a dork who likes Hubba the Hippo with a passion to the point of collecting its goods. (A fact Hunk stumbled upon on accident when he spied a clear file folder with a familiar hippopotamus character on it.) (Hunk thinks it’s cute.)  
  
5\. Keith scowls a lot when he’s concentrating, but he’s actually a pretty chill dude who’ll laugh at Hunk’s jokes. (And it’s a nice laugh too, so open and unrestrained.)  
  
Keith quickly becomes more of a friend than just a customer, and Hunk feels it in how Keith is becoming more open about himself the more they interact. His expressions are becoming gentler and he smiles more and he shares the things that he likes with Hunk sometimes. Like how he now takes a break from his studying to show Hunk an animated video of Hubba the Hippo.  
  
“Wow, I didn’t know they even make videos for this. That is so cute!”  
  
“They do, they have a lot if you check their twitter,” Keith taps his phone’s screen and shows another video to Hunk when the bell above the cafe door chimes to notify them the arrival of yet another customer.  
  
“Hunk, my man! Your buddy Lance is here to get some of your scrumptious food– _what the hell are YOU doing here?!_ ” Lance makes an entrance and immediately screeches.  
  
Hunk blinks and follows the direction Lance is pointing, which is to Keith, whose face is tense and all scrunched up. _Uh oh._  
  
“Drinking coffee. Because it’s a _coffee shop_ if you haven’t noticed, Lance.” Keith spits out Lance’s name at the end, returning Lance’s glare.  
  
“Wait, you guys know each other?” Hunk looks back and forth between the two.  
  
“We have a few classes together. How did you know him?” Keith turns to ask Hunk.  
  
“Lance is my roommate. We live together.” Hunk answers.  
  
“Ugh, and how did you two know each other? You better not be stealing my BFF, Keith,” Lance leans down to Keith’s eye level and narrows his eyes in warning.

“I’m a customer. And Hunk works here. We’re friends,” Keith replies in a flat tone, narrowing his eyes back at Lance.  
  
Then realization dawns on Hunk. “Wait wait wait! Is Keith that Mullet-Bastard-Keith you’ve talked about before?!”  
  
“Mullet bas–? Lance, can I talk to you for a second?” Keith stands up and drags Lance away with him, leaving a very confused Hunk behind.  
  
The two have a what looks to be an argument in hushed whispers in front of the toilet, and Hunk doesn’t have a single clue what they’re talking about. But from time to time Lance looks back to give Hunk a glance, his face getting more and more confused every time for some reason. Hunk just sits and watches them.  
  
Both Keith and Lance walk back to the table and take their seat, a moment of awkward silence stretching between them.  
  
“Keith may have a mullet but he’s not a bastard. Not an asshole or countless other stuff I’ve called him. Not at all. We just have a very healthy rivalry going on that sometimes go out of hand,” Lance says as if he’s reciting a grocery list, glaring at Keith the whole time.  
  
“Uh...huh. Okay?” Hunk feels like something is going on that he’s being left out.  
  
“So, yay! What a coincidence, huh, us mutual friends meeting up here,” Lance says, his tone still sounding too unnatural. “By the way Hunk, remember that new brunch place we were planning on going this weekend?”  
  
“Ooh, yeah! We heard the food there is _heavenly_ ,” Hunk says to Keith in explanation.  
  
“I was thinking since Keith, who is my frienemy, is now also your friend, that maybe he can join us. Because we’re all friends. And because we’re friends we should hang out with each other.”  
  
“That’s a great idea! I didn’t know you like going to brunch, Keith!” Hunk beams at Keith and gets a weak smile back.  
  
“Yeah, of course. ‘Cause he likes _brunch_ so much,” Hunk catches Lance muttering. His roommate then yelps in pain and glares at Keith who looks away not-so-innocently. Seriously, what is going on with them?  
  
“Can you text me the details later, Hunk?” Keith asks.  
  
“Sure! What’s your number?” Hunk takes out his phone and types in Keith’s phone number.  
  
“That was so smooth. You owe me big time, mullet boy,” Lance says enigmatically, before yelping yet again. “Stop stomping on my foot, man! Not cool!”

* * *

  
  
They meet up with Keith and head out to the brunch place, arriving there early to avoid lining up through peak brunch time. As they get to their seats, Hunk and Keith look at the menu while Lance fiddles with his phone.

And then Lance suddenly gets up.

“I’m really sorry guys, but I’ve got this urgent, uh, emergency? And I’ve really got to go. Right now,” Lance announces.

“Emergency? What happened?” Hunk puts down his menu and looks at Lance in alarm.

“It’s Pidge. Um. It’s...an emergency booty call, anyways gotta go guys, enjoy your brunch! Bye!”

Lance is gone in a blink, leaving Hunk gaping in his wake with Keith, who’s still looking through the menu.  
  
“Is there such a thing as an emergency booty call?” Hunk asks, slightly worried.  
  
“No idea. Are you ready to order?” Keith says as he puts down the menu.  
  
They end up ordering a croque madame sandwich and an eggs benedict they’ve agreed to share. And a cup of latte for Keith, and mocha for Hunk. The waiter presents them with their food before long and they dig in immediately.  
  
“Mmh!” Hunk groans in delight, “This is so good, the bechamel sauce is to _die_ for. I wonder if I can replicate this at home. How do you like it, Keith?”  
  
“I don’t know, it’s good,” Keith takes another bite and chews, making a considering face. “But I think I still like your cooking better.”  
  
Hunk’s face heats up at the unexpected comment, his heart swelling double its size, and he can’t help the goofy laugh that comes out at the praise. “Aw shucks, buddy.”  
  
They continue eating, but Hunk notices that Keith is distracted by something. He squirms on his seat every other minute, and he’s looking uncharacteristically nervous and restless.  
  
“Keith, are you feeling okay?” Hunk asks.  
  
“Hm?” Keith hums, sitting up straighter. “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”  
  
“You’ve been acting weird ever since we met Lance at the cafe the other day like something’s been eating away at you man,” Hunk bites his lips, wondering if he’s not stepping over some line here. “You can talk about it with me if you want. Or not! If you’re not comfortable with that.”  
  
“No, there’s nothing wrong! It’s just…” And now Keith is...blushing? Hunk’s totally lost here. Keith clears his throat. “So, uh. Should we go get coffee sometimes?”  
  
What. “What?” Hunk echoes his thoughts.  
  
“I’m asking if we should go get coffee. Some other time.”  
  
“But we have coffee all the time at the Balmera? And we’re having coffee now?” Hunk’s mind is reeling at the sudden turn of conversation, and he has no idea where this is going.  
  
“No, I mean _‘coffee’._ As in going just the two of us?”  
  
“Don’t we usually have coffee with just the two of us..?”  
  
“Oh god, how does Lance do this all the time,” Keith groans and ducks his head, but it doesn’t hide that every inch of his face is tomato red. “I’m asking you out. On a date.”  
  
“Oh. OOH!” Everything is clicking into place, and now that they’re on the same page, it’s Hunk’s turn to blush. He didn’t realize Keith’s interested him in _that way._ So is this whole thing Lance trying to play wingman for Keith? Oh my god. Now it makes sense. Emergency booty call, yeah right. “Ooh…Okay!”  
  
“Okay?” Keith peers up at him sounding hesitant but looking a little hopeful. Hunk gives him the biggest grin he could give. He might be taking this in a stride, but now that he finally understands what’s happening, Hunk also realizes that he also wants this...wants them to happen.  
  
He’s been so busy trying to make friends, that he puts aside all the time he spent thinking that Keith is cute. The only thing he regrets is not realizing it quick enough and asks Keith out first.  
  
“Yeah! Okay! Let’s go on a date next time! Or does this count as the first one?” Giddy at the sudden development, Hunk starts feeling bold and reaches out to cover Keith’s hand with his.  
  
The smile Keith gives him is blinding and the most beautiful one he ever saw.


End file.
